'Newcastle fans won't be fooled' - Keith Wyness reacts to club's 'secret' badge change

Newcastle United’s board will have already secretly settled on what they hope will be the club’s badge moving forward. 

That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that the club have got the timing of their proposed change all wrong. 

The Magpies are planning a consultation with fans over a possible change in crest, amid a desire to move towards a more social media-friendly design. 

Wyness believes that the club hierarchy will have already reached a decision as to what they want for the badge moving forward, and may not be swayed by what the supporters think. 

The North East outfit are currently enduring a difficult summer, having already lost key players in the duo of Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali. 

Their PIF owners are under growing pressure from the fans, and with that in mind, Wyness has seriously questioned the timing of this decision.

Newcastle fans ‘won’t be fooled’ 

Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – has emphasised that Newcastle must ensure that their consultation with the fans is “authentic.”

He made it clear that if they remain too tied to their own ideas, or seem closed off to supporters’ views, then it won’t go down well across the club. 

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the Scottish businessman emphasised that the hierarchy must be prepared to accept a different outcome if the fans are not in agreement with them. 

“Newcastle's badge is quite complex in terms of its look and feel right now, in terms of use on social media and smaller electronic issues,” he said.

“That's what this is all about, being able to get it onto TikTok and other social media channels. That’s what all these moves on badges with clubs have been about recently. It's always about trying to simplify it.

“I've seen that they're going to try and do this with the usual fan consultation, and they swear that no decision has been made. But I bet you there are already some ideas they've got that they're going to try and push towards and push it through.

“The Newcastle fans won't be fooled. As I've said before, these consultations better be authentic, and if they don't get the result they want, they better be able to stick with the existing badge. But of course the management won't want that.

“It’s a risky time to do it; I wouldn't have done it at the start of the season either. I understand why they're trying to do it, but I just don't think this is either the right time or the right way to get it done.”

Keith Wyness ‘amazed’ by PIF ‘treatment’ of Newcastle

Wyness told Football Insider earlier this week that he is “amazed” that PIF haven’t tried to encourage sponsorship deals for Newcastle from some of their other companies.

The Saudi owners would have to work around the Premier League’s related party transaction rules, but he emphasised that a loophole could be found if they wished. 

This comes after Yasir Al Rumayyan’s Aramco oil company were big sponsors of this summer’s World Cup, with the Magpies’ chairman seen on the pitch during the trophy presentation last weekend. 

Wyness made it clear that it is currently a “weird situation” in terms of the way that PIF are “treating Newcastle.”